Tuesday, July 20, 2010

spreadin' the Bobbsey love (through a giveaway!)

I've mentioned a few times in the past (including the intro to this blog!) of my childhood love of the Bobbsey Twins. Through an unfortunate circumstance, I lost all of my childhood volumes that I spent many Christmases and birthdays collecting. Since then, I've always checked used bookstores and thrift shops hoping to catch someone offloading a Bobbsey Twin book or two but have been mostly unsuccessful. Even on eBay, most of the auctions I've seen would cost upwards to $200 to replace my entire collection.

Recently however, my luck in finding Bobbsey Twins books turned around in a big way. I found someone's old collection of about 20 Bobbsey Twins books at one of my favorite local used bookstores and within days found an auction on eBay that also had 20 books that were selling Buy It Now at less than $2/book. I now have something close to two-thirds of my original collection for less than $60. Of course, I realized that I would end up with a couple of duplicates. My duplicates are your gain! I'm offering a double giveaway of the following Bobbsey Twins books: The Bobbsey Twins' Adventure in Washington and The Bobbsey Twins The Secret At The Seashore.

The Secret At The Seashore is #3 in the series, although the books in this series can be read independently without needing context from previous books. Each chapter has a sketch of a main event. I can remember as a child how the pictures of the stories in my head were shaped by these sketches.

And in typical Bobbsey fashion, each book begins with the same description of the twins. Tall, slender dark-haired Bert and Nan and short, chubby blond Freddie and Flossie.

Adventure in Washington is #12. I remember feeling so much more informed about Washington, it's city, monuments, government buildings and even the political process after reading this book. What a joy it is to take the trip back to my childhood each time I read these. My own kids have really enjoyed them too. They were almost as excited as I was with our recent acquisition of so many volumes!

This giveaway will run from now through Friday at noon. At that time, I will draw 2 numbers to each win a book. To enter, simply leave me a comment (if you want to tell me about your favorite childhood book, that would be special too). To double your chances, become a follower of The Book Children (or be a current follower) and let me know in the comments. To gain another entry, blog about this giveaway and leave me a link in the comments. I'd love for another Bobbsey-lover to be born through this giveaway! :)

The winners are Bending Birches and Janice! Congrats. Email me with your address and I'll mail these out right away!

I never read the Bobbsey twins. I remember not having much direction in the classics. I went to the book mobile and checked out what looked good. I found some good and not so good books with that method. LOL

My favorite book when I was little was Blueberries for Sal. I loved the very detailed illustrations of the kitchen and animals.

ohhhh i used to love these books!!!!! how wonderful!! among my childhood faves: anne of green gables, are you there god? it's me, margaret, ANY book by robert McCloskey...especially "one morning in maine"....thank you for a beautiful blog! brings back so many memories:) I'm a follower:)

I never read these as a kid... so I am sure Zach and I would love to share the new adventure of checking them out. Fabulous giveaway. I was a big non-fiction reader as a kid. I was the weird one with a National Geographic in my hands at all times while my friends read age appropriate fiction stories :)

My mom was a huge fan of The Little Golden Books series. From that, my favorite was The Pokey Little Puppy. Then once I started school and started really 'reading', I loved The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables.

i am saddened by the fact that i can not remember one book from my early childhood. i even called my mom and asked her if i had books. :) then i remembered that i could read before i went to kindergarten (so far from my current waldorf stance on reading) so i must have had books.

i do know that as an older child i adored nancy drew. could not get enough. i never read the bobbsey twins, or else it is blocked from my feeble memory as so many others are. ;) i would love the opportunity to share them with my own children though!

Glad to have found your blog and I am now following along. My favorite book when I was little was a compilation of fairy tales with a beautiful red & white paisley coever and the outside of the pages was golden. It was like a treasure on my grandmother's night stand. I am proud to say I still have it and my son loves it (almost) as muchas I do. consider me entered.

Hi, hope it's OK to contact you here. We would love to include your blog on our giveaway search engine: Giveaway Scout (http://www.giveawayscout.com). Have a look and if interested, use our online form to add your blog (http://www.giveawayscout.com/addblog/ ). thanks, Josh

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About Me

I'm Joy, wife to Paul, stay-at-home mom to Elizabeth (15) and Finn (9), and stepmom to Paulie (16) and Philip (13). I blog at An Art Family to remember their childhood and to make sure I get plenty of pictures of it in the process. I blog at The Book Children to satiate my love of discussing the hundreds of children's books I consume each year. We spend our days painting, drawing, reading, digging in dirt, walking in nature, stretching our imaginations, trying to enhance learning and creativity at home in a natural way, and then reading some more.